A Night for Nightmares

by River Road

Epilogue

“Ohh…” Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes, putting a hoof to her head. She was in a bed, even though she couldn’t quite remember if she had gone to bed the night before. “What happened…? All I remember is…”

Her eyes snapped open. The monster, Scootaloo, Fluttershy. She frantically tried to focus her vision on the figures, recognizing the first one as–

“Augh!” She almost jumped, backing away from the mint green unicorn. She turned her head to the left in panic, stopping just in time to see the yellow pegasus standing at the bedside.

“Augh!” Rainbow scooted backwards another bit, instinctively looking away from the yellow pegasus, until suddenly her vision was filled with white, blue and lots of pink.

“Aug– Oww…” Trying to back up even further, Rainbow’s head connected with the wall at the head of the bed. The wall didn’t budge, leaving her to close her eyes again and hold her head until the pain would recede.

Pinkie Pie turned her head back to her friends cheerfully, still standing on the bed with her forelegs. “I think she’s awake.”

Rainbow Dash opened an eye again, glaring at her friend while she continued to hold her head. She noticed that all of her five friends, plus Scootaloo and that unicorn-spider-monster were gathered around her bed. “Okay, I’ll ask… What the hay is going on?!”

“Well,” Twilight spoke up, glancing at the other ponies around her. “From what I understand Rarity and Applejack were trying to scare you, and apparently decided to get help from Lyra,” – she pointed a hoof at the mint green unicorn – “Scootaloo and Fluttershy.”

Pinkie Pie bounced right in front of her, flailing her arms in a flurry of different gestures. “Yeah, it was the biggest and greatest and huge-est prank I’ve ever seen, and they played it on you of all ponies and I wish I could have seen it but I was still leading the kids around to gather candy, I think you saw me so you probably know that already. But I can’t believe they actually scared you, and not just a little scare but they really scared scared you!”

“Hold on,” Rainbow interrupted the tirade. “I wasn’t sca…” Applejack and Rarity raised an eyebrow in unison and she stopped, clearing her throat to cover up. “Yeah, okay! I admit it, I was scared! Are you happy now?”

Her two friends looked at each other, then back at Rainbow Dash. “Yes, actually. That’s all we wanted to hear.”

---

The seven mares and one filly stepped out of Fluttershy’s cottage, into the open. After a few more minutes of talking, Rainbow Dash had calmed down and was even able to laugh about the situation.

“I still can’t believe you of all ponies gave me that final scare!” She turned around to the yellow pegasus, who was still standing by the door. “Oh yeah, and thanks for letting me stay here, too, I guess.”

“Oh, it was all Scootaloo’s idea, really.” Fluttershy gave a shy smile, hiding behind her mane. “And don’t mention it… After all, it was my fault that you wound up unconscious in the first place…”

“I wonder if we can learn a lesson from this, too.” Twilight said to nopony in particular. “I already sent the Princess a friendship report last night, but if I send another one, she’ll be even more impressed.” She stopped, noticing the other ponies giving her odd looks, and blushed. “Oh, and another lesson in friendship would be important, too, of course…”

“Uhm… I learned something… maybe?”

Everypony turned around to Fluttershy. “Really?” Twilight asked, smiling brightly. “Well, then, tell us. I’m sure everypony here and the Princess would love to hear.”

“Oh, uhm…” Fluttershy looked down nervously. “It’s just that… I mean…” She raised her foreleg just a little and lowered it to the ground again, three times.

Lightning struck the ground just a few feet behind the other ponies’ backs, accompanied by loud thunder. Six mares and a filly jumped in surprise, shrieking loudly.

Fluttershy watched as they calmed down again, but then, one after another, began to hiccup uncontrolled. A few of them tried to fight it down, but none of them succeeded. Fluttershy giggled softly and turned her attention to the thundercloud in the air right above her friends. She smiled and waved at the two large birds, a falcon and an eagle, who stood on top of the cloud, each with one wing raised to their head in salute.

“Hic” “Hic” “Hic” “Hic” “Hic” “Hic” “Hic”

Author's Note:

Post-Epilogue:

"So... I take it you enjoyed your first Nightmare Night." Bon Bon looked up from the book she was reading, smiling at the unicorn.

"That I did." Lyra closed the door behind her, trotting over to the couch her friend was sitting on. "Though I still say, seeing you in that costume was still the highlight of the whole night."

"It was a pretty awesome costume, wasn't it?" Bon Bon looked to the ceiling in mock thought, then back at Lyra, smirking. "Say it."

"Do I have to?" Lyra whined playfully.

"Say it, or no lunch for you." Bon Bon sang.

"Okay..." Lyra let out a sigh, pretending to force herself to say the words. "Your costume was still indefinitely better than mine and I pity everypony who didn't get to see you in it."

...

...You can blame Nightmare Nyx for that one.

Happy Nightmare Night, everypony.

Comments

[Tarascha]

Sweet epiloge. Now that the story is finally finished I can say that it was just as I thought it would be.
Awesome and hilarious. Again you did an awesome job on your story
Going to see you in the next one!

[River Road]

3935653

Glad to hear that.
I'll go about fixing the first chapter sometime when I remember it. For now, I have three more days to write the second part of my contest entry for that MLPchan contest.

[superfun]

I'd love to see a sequel where Rainbow Dash gets some kind of revenge on them.

[River Road]

5462976

As if Rainbow Dash would ever need an excuse to prank ponies. I'm not sure if Fluttershy wouldn't still be off-limits, though.
Either way, no sequel planned so far. You could take a look at the comic it was inspired by, though.

41.media.tumblr.com/d22a6ece31eefa95072e87891604a72c/tumblr_nguqoko1nm1rzg30po1_500.png
41.media.tumblr.com/9278343d22ce4e7c1d2aa2730f81151c/tumblr_nguqoko1nm1rzg30po2_500.png
41.media.tumblr.com/22d9b6eb5d14eb301b5445a917daa78b/tumblr_nguqoko1nm1rzg30po3_500.png

[superfun]

5463172 I don't think RD would ever prank Fluttershy, no matter what.

[superfun]

This story actually got me thinking...
the show needs an episode like this.
There have already been several episodes about facing fears, but in this case, the episode would be about Rainbow Dash learning that it's okay for even a grown mare to admit that they're scared.

[River Road]

5538366

Screw underlying morals and life lessons. I just want to see her scream and faint!

(P.S.: What about the Castle Maneia episode?)

[superfun]

5538409 that would probably be included in the episode.
Castle-Mania is one that is more about dealing with fears. Besides, rainbow never once said out loud that she was scared

[LEGION55]

Sequel based on the idea that Lyra really is a Monster?